The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 35

The Sunday Age AGENDA 7: 26 April 1993 Heat and sex as London town is falling dowif Review Too many passages Ipoil the plot ff Peggy Ashcroft In mind to play an old woman released from a lifetime In a mental Institution. 'Close My Eyes' Is only the second film that Pollakoff has directed and written. Tbe first, 'Hidden City' (1987), a thriller with deeper resonances (like most of his work), stars Charles Dance as a man trying to penetrate a web of secret surveillance. Poliakoff says he learnt about directing on the job. First, when he bad to take over tbe direction of some of his earlier stage plays after the incumbent got a better offer, later by working with the directors some of them famous ones like Michael Apted, Stephen Frears.

Peter Hall, Charles Sturridge of bis TV films. "I was able to work with some very good directors who liked having the writer around, and I learnt quite a lot from them," he recalls. "But no matter how well, or otherwise, you get on with the director, it's enormously exhausting to try to ensure that your vision is preserved without treading on the director's toes or otherwise getting In the way." The solution, obviously, was to put those 'prentice years to good effect and direct his own work. The result in 'Close My Eyes' is remarkably assured. 'Close My Eyes', rated Is now screening at the Cinema Nova and Palace Brighton Bay.

TALK to some people about Stephen Pollakoff new film, 'Close My Eyes', and one can almost hear their minds clanging shut This intriguing comedy-drama has a terrible "no-no" at the core of Its narrative Clive Owen and Saskla Reeves play a middle-class brother and sister in present-day London who, wittingly and passionately, have a tempestuous sexual affair. Shock, horror, and so on. But as the British writer-director pointed out in a phone conversation last week, 'Close My Eyes' "Isn't about Incest, per "Nobody In Britain seems to have found tbe film distasteful," he added. "After all, this situation abounds in classical literature, and the film is more about a young man of our time finding that life has become a lot more complicated than be had expected." It is complicated indeed, and not just in his sex life. Pollakoff, one of Britain's leading playwrights and screenwriters, recently turned to film-making and his works resonate with socio-political nuance.

Not that he's a message-monger. Poliakoff weaves his stories of recognisable, frequently unusual, people into rich tapestries of current events, movements and problems. In this story, the brother is a town planner monitoring the huge new developments in London's docklands. The sister, who has seen him only A sub-text throughout the film challenges the entrepreneurs who have been attempting to remake London. By sheer good luck.

Pollakoff set this part of the film amid the futuristic buildings of the docklands project, part of which has since collapsed in one of the worst financial debacles in British economic history. "Fortuitously, it has become an image of tbe 'bust' of tbe Thatcherite economy Maggie fell while we were in post-production," he said. Pollakoffs sceptical attitudes to English society possibly have their origin in his very middle-class primary schooling. Born in London in 1952, he attended a "very backward" preparatory boarding school that was "like something out of Evelyn The geography class's pre-World War II maps were still full of pink areas denoting the British Empire. Later, however, towards the end of the swinging '60s, he attended the celebrated Westminster public school in London, where his interest in theatre began.

It was a great time to be growing up In London: "The school was very liberal, the boys, including me, were very arrogant and metropolitan and kind of sophisticated for their Pollakoff started writing plays at Westminster, continued while briefly reading history at Cambridge and had his first play staged professionally when be was only 18. if: IT. -V- 'Vr Fore telly taras Arthur Boyd got him his first big sale in 1956, but Robert Dickerson burnt many of his other early works. What's left is part of an exhibition that opened this week, reports Muriel Reddy. wright" and, at the ripe age of 24, became a resident writer at the Nalional Theatre, which staged bis drama 'Strawberry Fields'.

All this activity kept him out of the clutches of Hollywood, which is Insatiably Interested in proven new talent. Two decades on, and with a swag of major plays ('City Sugar', 'Shout Across tbe River', 'Breaking the Silences' are among the best known), numerous major TV works, and, now, films, to his credit, he still hasn't answered the call of the Californian sirens. Not that there haven't been offers and temptations: "They've been quite interested in me, but I couldn't work there and maintain a career in theatre, which I find very important." He might succumb one day, if the right project and combination of people came along, "but I prefer to do my own work In my own In recent years, that way has veered into TV and film. He wrote such outstanding British TV productions as 'Stronger Than the Sun' (about a nuclear accident), 'Caught on a Train' (a prize-winning vehicle for Peggy Ashcroft), the disconcerting 'Bloody Kids' (juvenile delinquency) and 'Soft Targets' (an ironic Cold War comedy-drama). Also made for TV, but released theatrically here and elsewhere, was the recent 'She's Been Away', written with swim or run along the beach." If he Is given to passionate outbursts it Is only when he discusses his fitness regimen, which is central to his work.

He rises at 5.30 am, swims in the Noosa River close to his Queensland home (he also keeps a house In Sydney) and then starts bis eight-hour working day. He adheres to it six days a week. "I don't find it physically taxing," he explains. "I use weights every 15 minutes or so while I paint" He is Intrigued by the landscapes of Queensland, a significant change of subject for a man who has made his name by painting people. His style has changed little over the years.

"I would say it is figurative," be says. "I like I'm not joking. You always have doubts about your ability doing new subjects that I've never tackled before." In assessing Dickerson's work, Robert Hughes wrote in a book on art in Australia that the emotional core was loneliness, isolation, inarticulateness. "A lot of people are pretty isolated in the city, aren't they?" Dickerson asks rhetorically. "They're pretty incapable of making contact with human beings at all.

I have painted that but not all the time. I mean I paint people that are quite sociable and sit round boardroom tables doing big deals. "I suppose everybody must have felt isolated and lonely at some point. Yeah, I suppose I have, particularly when I was tossed out on to an airstrip at night during the war and told to guard it and I was the only one there. I felt very Isolated and lonely." He made his first big sale through fellow artist Arthur Boyd.

The pair had swapped paintings and Eric West-brook, director of The National Gallery of Victoria, bought a Dicker-son piece from Boyd in 1956. "He gave me the money, which was about 25 pounds," says Dickerson. "It was very good of him." Although he keeps some of his early work, Dickerson is not a sentimental man. He will leave behind him a rich legacy of work but It Is not something he dwells on. "I don't think I give a damn," he chuckles.

"When I pass on it's not going to affect me at all what people say about my work. If they like it, that's good." Robert Dickerson' exhibition at The Caulfield Arts Complex, Caulfield Town Hall, run until 4 May. leave Reiner's film thinking you've seen a real documentary about a real group of aspiring rock stars (that they subsequently became a concert attraction is another Issue). But you're never In doubt with 'Bob Roberts'. The social critique Robbins offers In It Is suitably astringent, calling attention to the ways in which politicians and their aides are able to use the media to further their own ends.

And It's often very funny too, especially In its depiction of the ways In which "hip" images can be appropriated by very "unhlp" people. But It has a self-congratulatory smartness to It that is unsettling, whether or not one shares its pessimistic view of contemporary media Inclinations. Although Robbins Is terrific on camera as the right-winging, folk-singing US Senate aspirant, off camera he Is less successful. Nowhere does he challenge his audience to do anything more than nod appreciatively in agreement In gathering his own celebrity supporters In both major and supporting roles, and by encouraging them to write their own parts (Gore Vidal uses his role as Roberts' Democratic rival as a soap box), Robbins Is legitimising the same kind of Image-making he Is purporting to criticise. KEITH talkTes occasionally since their parents split up, is married to a wealthy entrepreneur (Alan Rlckman).

While the pair discover a new fascination for each other, Britain is in tbe grip of an unaccustomed heatwave. The times are clearly out of joint in society and the lives of these people. As the writer-director says: "There's AIDS and other dangers, the city is being rebuilt, the weather is changing alarmingly all things that make you feel powerless. "The brother seeks escape from the present, not through drugs, but another kind of addiction, one that he finds curiously comforting, yet highly dangerous." A fraught dichotomy for our time, into which one may read all manner of socio-political nuance, such as the unusual heat as metaphor for a changing, collapsing Britain. hit Perhaps bis insecurity took root in his youth during the Depression.

He left school at 14 and a year later embarked on a career as a boxer. In those days it was a quick way of making a dollar, but economics was not its only appeal. "I lived in a pretty tough area (Surry Hills) and you got belted up every day and you got sick of it. So I took up boxing to defend myself," he recalls. "I took it up to block my way around the streets more or less.

Plus the fact I wasn't very fit I had pneumonia a couple of times and it was a way of physically building yourself up. And if you did that, people bad more respect for you In those days. It was all a sham." However, sport was not much to his liking. He disliked inflicting punishment and he hated receiving it "A much better fighter would often get you in the ring and say 'oh, I'll take it easy on you'. And when they'd get you in they'd belt the hell out of you." He was knocked out once but was consoled by the apology from his opponent.

"I liked the training and the people I mixed with," he says. "But I didn't like boxing very much. It was very nervous-making, performing in front of a crowd. You'd get booed if you lost No, I didn't like it very much son for the course he takes is his pride, his desire "to place himself above those who have humiliated There is the same kind of masochism at work in the punishment he Imposes upon himself for what he regards as his failures as there was In the recalled childhood Incident In which he injured himself, by putting a stone In his shoe, to achieve a wish. The obsessive symmetricallty of the visual style Initially adopted stresses the oppressive formality of the Italian court Its architecture framed to suggest a rigorously ordered world pressing in on Sergio's strivings.

Only when he becomes a hermit In a simple, hillside dwelling, do the Tavianls' Images provide him some room to move, allowing him a hopeful glimpse of the ft sti 1 JOHN LARKIN 3 THEATRE rTBe Garden of Granddaughters', by Stephen Sewell, presented by Maybox and The Sydney Theatre Company at The CUB Malthouae, un-J8 May. -AS an Important part of his highly 3 acclaimed ability as a writer, Stephen Sewell Is known for his concern about the way the world Mirks. In bis new play he deals through the medium of one of the most discussed topics of modern life, family relationships. With 'The Garden of Granddaughters', he is working with a sympathetic spirit in George Ogilvie, a great Australian director, who is a strong believer Tin the value of family, and also deeply Involved In trying to make tbe world a better place. what we should have in the much awaited work, which opened at PJaybox this week in its Australian premiere, is a loving comedy of a high degree.

I put, instead, we find ourselves ending up too much in an overgrown thicket, where the writer seems to lose sight of the fact that the best gardens arc those in which everything has a Sense of scale as well as place. The density of creative growth in the play endangers itself in the form of excessive moral messages. 1-This overcrowding in an attempt. However well-meaning, to address big questions about life, creates a complexity which can make it hard for the audience to be held by the show for a sustained vision. LThe blockage comes in the last act, in which a whole series of speeches address existential issues, whereas jpst one simple statement might have done it The fact that the family in question has had some trouble endear-ingthemselves to us makes connecting with their final attempts at reconciliation and redemption not always an easy exercise.

rThe play, set in Melbourne, deals with the surprise arrival from New York of the grandparents. Max (Ron Haddrick) and Moriley (Daphne Gray), to see their daughters, Michelle (Jlllian Murray), Lisa (Janet Andrewartha) and Fay (Dina Pan-ozzo), and the granddaughters, Paula (Elise McCredie), Alison (Lauren Brooks or Hayley Barberis), and Cathy (Jemma Doliniec or Teresa McMenomy). THE unexpected visit, while in-, tended for only three days, should be a time of great happiness. Initially there is some sense of celebration, with the warmth and wit-, ticism of a big Jewish family, as the large stage In The Merlyn skilfully designed by Anna French, Is. awash with the energy of.

homecoming. Soon, though, we are made aware that all the chatter and catching up with each other is covering a deeper question, to do with the communication of truth, the reality of the life of each person. Inevitably, this begins to rise to the surface. Lisa is a struggling artist, whose Idealism has been instilled in her by her father, who is a conductor. Michelle has devoted her life to bringing up her family.

Fay says she desperately wants to have a family of her own, in a search which has her with a succession of lovers, including a Mickey Rourke type of rogue journalist, Morty (Kevin Harrington), the only other male in the show. We are moved and amused accordingly by the family members' individual pain and the means by which they measure each other and themselves. Sometimes we are drawn easily to them, other times it seems harder to reach them. On opening night there was a problem, at least at the back of the theatre, hearing some of the lines, Including a critical one from Alison to her grandfather. It Is reasonable to believe that Max and Moriley are the most concerned about their life journey theirs being the closest to conclusion and Ron Haddrick and Daphne Gray as the central characters give them an endearing sense of charm and warmth.

It Is when Max begins making too many speeches about the meaning of existence, when the playwright becomes too zealous, that the piece be-domes top heavy and loses Its momentum. The shift from the melodramatic moments of the family which are the most entertaining part of the play to the vigorous Intellectual pursuit by Max is too abrupt and labored. -The author also diminishes the work with an unnecessary excess of one-liners. Some of them are very funny, as are the caricatures that underlie' some of the characters. But others are distracting shots at celebrities in Australian current affairs.

Tbe script could be Improved by more discipline, more concern about the effect on the audience and more attention to building a better maze In the garden and letting us have more time and space, more room to move, to find our own way through. From stage to screen: British writer-director Stephen Poliakoff. He soon dropped out of university and wrote full time, earning his keep with various jobs. "I wanted to be an actor, but I was terrible at it and realised that, for me, playwriting was the thing," he says. At 19, he had a play accepted by the famous Royal Court Theatre and there was no looking back.

It was, he says, a lucky time to be around the London stage. The proliferating fringe theatre was hungry for new work five of Pollakoffs plays ran in one year, 1975. The following year, be won a major award for "most promising play gave up a regular job to start painting, hi's pictm waync luobev woman to accept that you could paint pictures and sell them, particularly in tbe suburb where we lived (Annandale). "They considered painting mad and anyone who painted a picture had to be a looney. It was very hard to convince anyone that you could make a living out of it.

It was a pretty desperate thing to do when I think back. It's silly. Isn't It, bow it works out." Unlike his art, the marriage did not endure. He has 10 children from three marriages; his last still going after 23 years. He believes he has none of the temperament often attributed to artists and Is easy enough to live with.

"I don't think many artists have it," he says laconically. "They're only people doing another job. I just look upon It as a job. If things are not working too well I go for a walk or go for a 'Bob Roberts' (M, Bcrtnlng tt tl Kino and the Longford) Written and directed by Tim Robbins. Starring Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito.

Alan Hickman, Gore Vidal. Enjoyable but unchalienging political satire made to coincide with the 1992 US election and belatedly released here. AS many have already proposed, the similarities between Tim Robbins' political satire, 'Bob Roberts' and Rob Reiner's 1984 mock rockumentary, 'This Is Spinal Tap', are Irresistible. Both are spoofs about preening celebrities and about the ways in which the Images they present are circulated through the media. And both draw attention to the ways In which, despite television newsmakers' and documentary filmmakers' all-too-frequent protestations to the contrary, seeing should not be believing.

However, their differences are even more illuminating. Whereas the collection of well-known faces in its cast ensures that 'Bob Roberts' Is Immediately taken as a fiction about the making of a documentary, 'Spinal Tap' keeps you wondering about what you're looking at. It Is quite possible to IT WAS tbe small advertisement in a newspaper that caught Robert Dickerson's eye: a man wanting to sell some paintings privately. Moved by curiosity and a feeling be could not quite define, he decided to have a look. "They're not worth much," observed the vendor.

"They're not very good, are they?" A smile crossed Dickerson's face before he replied "no, they're not." One of the country's best known painters had just passed Judgment on some of his early works. Dissatisfied with them at the time, he was about to burn them when a man asked if he could use the paintings to line bis second-hand car instead. Dickerson happily handed them over. It was not unusual for Dickerson to burn his paintings, not necessarily because they didn't please him but more a case of trying to clear some space for new works. He Is his own harshest critic.

"I still have my doubts about it now," he says of his work. "I'm not Joking. You always have doubts about your ability." It is a surprising admission for a man near his 70th year, whose work has been acclaimed here and in galleries overseas. Indeed, the largest exhibition of his work, 150 paintings, opened this week at the Caulfied Arts Complex. 1 'Taxi', Bryan Ferry (Virgin) F)R his first studio foray in half a decade, Bryan Ferry has chosen to interpret the materials of other writers rather than provide an album of originals.

In other circumstances this might have been a successful move but of all the cover versions Ferry has attempted in his career, this batch might just be the least satisfying. Not that there is anything wrong with the songs on 'Taxi' this would be an outstanding collection in tbe company of most Similarly, the playing from a seasoned bunch of musos cannot be faulted and provides the highlights of an otherwise lacklustre effort Nathan East, Steve Ferrone, Roxy Music Andy Mackay and even James Brown's Maceo Parker all combine to sustain an elegant aural backdrop. There are many fine musical moments, inviting repeated listening, which are unfortunately not matched by Ferry's vocal delivery. Songs such as Fontella Bass's Rescue Me', Nat King Cole's Answer Me', the classic 'I Put A Spell On You' need some fire and passion to convey their intensity. These are elements Ferry is unable, or unwilling to deliver.

Occasionally, as on the Hollies' 'Just One Look' and the traditional Amazing Grace', tbe choices seem like sheer folly. Ironically, it is on 'All Tomorrow's Parties' perhaps the least likely choice that Ferry's quavering vocals fit right into the song structure and the accompaniment to provide the best moments. The original version of J. Blackfoot's song 'Taxi' features an imploring, soulful vocal set against a richly appealing Instrumentation that delivers an emotionally charged message. Ferry's version Is more than Insipid it totally fails to capture the emotive essence of the song.

Having thus destroyed one of my favorite soul songs. Ferry has a long way to go In redeeming himself. This taxi is definitely heading in the wrong direction. Brian WIm 1 I hope I'm not being overly cynical here, tor I did enjoy watching 'Bob Roberts', but the film seems to me to be, paradoxically, as much Interested in serving the egos of its star-cast, providing them with a chance to wear their politics on their sleeves, as it Is in challenging the media machinery that enables them to do so. Don't bother.

Maybe, Good viewing. Don't miss It. PICKS OF THE WEEK 'The Best Intention': Ingmar Bergman and Bine August's powerful drama about class and conscience. At the Trak. 'The Crying Game': A soulful treasure.

On general release. 'Ohayu' (1959): Affecting family comedy from Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. At the Cinematheque, State Film Centre. Wednesday at 9.25. 'The Stolen Children': Gianni AmelkVs haunting film about displaced people.

At the Nova. 'Imforgtven'i Clint Eastwood's beautifully crafted Western. On general release. REVIEWS: POP ROCK MUSIC Nirvana is just so hard to find these days Career move: When Robert Dickerson wife did not welcome the decision. at all." He quit when he turned 18.

He has done one painting of boxers In a ring that bangs in the National Gallery in Canberra. "It was pretty much a comedy version of fighting," he explains. "People with long gloves and clown-like." At 69, Bob Dickerson has lived a full life. He joined the RAAF during World War II and, while waiting to be demobbed in Borneo, turned to painting to relieve the boredom. It would remain a weekend hobby on his return to Australia.

Later, sick of working for a gas company, Dickerson decided to become a full-time painter. It was not a decision welcomed by his wife and mother of his three children. "It was very hard for a woman to accept," says Dickerson. "Remember, this was 1957. It was difficult for a selflessness for which he Is striving.

But his optimism is short-lived: the world finds him again as the legend of the hermit spreads and an exploitive humanity seeks to steal his anonymity. A beautiful young woman (Patricia Millardet) arrives to seduce him to win a wager, pilgrims arrive to seek his blessing and to have him work his reputed miraculous powers on their behalf; merchants try to buy his favors; the Church connives to turn him into an Institution. His attempts to find salvation in seclusion elevate his existence to the realm of myth, denying him his privacy and turning his mission into a trade. Ironically, in trying to escape from material ambitions, he has achieved the "earthly glory" from which he thought he had freed himself. Despair is never far away, but 'Night Sun' is a moving celebration of its hero's courageous endeavors In the face of human failings, both his own and those of the society he has fled.

Its title refers to a light that shines in the midst of the darkness, a metaphor for the creation of hope when all appears hopeless. But the most telling and insistent Image In the Tavianls' film Is of a tree whose seasonal blossoms follow Nature's way, an eloquent reminder of the life force's regenerative powers. 'Night Sun' (PO, terming at the VaHtaHa) Written and directed by Paolo and Vlttorio Tavianl. Starring Julian Sands, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nastassja HinsM, Patricia Millardet. A supremely assured and defiantly unconventional period film from the Tavianl brothers.

BOLDLY running against the grain of much contemporary cinema, the Tavianl brothers' 'Night Sun' tells the story of a man's quest for "spiritual Adapted from Tolstoy's Father Sergl-us It follows the attempts of Baron Sergio Giuramondo (Julian Sands, dubbed by Giancarlo Gianninl), a nobleman of "humble to separate himself from social ambition and duplicity. Reaching for an Impossible perfection, he sets himself on a path that Is ncble In its aspirations yet doomed to failure. His struggle Is as much with himself, his vanity, his carnal anguish, as with the various social forces that Impinge upon his self-imposed solitude. A conversation between his mother (Margarita Lozano) and his sister (Pamela Vllloresi) suggests that part of the rea-.